Cranberry Breakfasts for Two

By: Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough

New ways to relish the berries of fall.

New ways to relish the berries of fall.

For months, it’s been sheets in the washer, dishes in the sink and lavish breakfast buffets, too—eggs, bacon, waffles, you
name it. You see, we’ve had a steady stream of company since we moved to rural Connecticut from Manhattan. Our friends, left
behind in small apartments, have discovered we have a spare bedroom and seem to settle in almost as comfortably as the
neighborhood bear, who likes to bunk down in our driveway.

Until recently, we’d find the bear there about midafternoon, just as the light started to angle through the maple and birch
boughs. One friend gawked out the window at that big black mass in the driveway and said, “But we can still go antiquing,
right?” No, we have to hunker down and wait. “Oh,” he said, “like when the doorman in my building is away at lunch and I’m
waiting for my mail.” Yeah, except only rarely can the doorman maul you.

But all this drama subsides on Monday mornings and the house quiets back down. The bear? Gone for the winter now. And no
breakfast buffets for bleary-eyed city-dwellers. Our morning routine falls back into place: a cup of coffee and a simple
two-serving breakfast. We’re alone with the morning paper, ready to eat healthy again and then take on the morning’s tasks.

It’s chilly most mornings now, the doors closed tight but the light brighter somehow, wintry and clean. The holidays are on
their way with all the trimmings—including the one fruit you can count on as winter sets in: cranberries. They’re grown
across our part of New England and most of the northern United States, particularly in Wisconsin, all places with plenty of
water. At harvest, most bogs are flooded and the cranberries float off the low-growing, woody vines to rise to the top of the
water where they’re corralled and scooped up.

Recently, researchers at the University of Wisconsin showed that flavonoid compounds in cranberries may help arteries remain
healthfully elastic and stave off un-necessary clotting. One too many breakfasts with company and we’re certainly in need of
something that promotes good arterial health.

With their tart flavor and all those health benefits, it’s no wonder we want to wake up to cranberry muesli that’s soaked overnight with yogurt, as it’s
made in Switzerland, or to these delicious whole-grain pancakes, studded with fresh cranberries.